Seleucid Empire

Seleucid Empire
312 BC – 63 BC
Tetradrachm of Seleucus I – the horned horse, the elephant and the anchor all served as symbols of the Seleucid monarchy.[1][2] of Seleucid Empire
Tetradrachm of Seleucus I – the horned horse, the elephant and the anchor all served as symbols of the Seleucid monarchy.[1][2]
The Seleucid Empire (light blue) in 281 BC on the eve of the murder of Seleucus I Nicator
The Seleucid Empire (light blue) in 281 BC on the eve of the murder of Seleucus I Nicator
Capital
Common languages
Religion
GovernmentHellenistic monarchy
Basileus 
• 305–281 BC
Seleucus I (first)
• 65–63 BC
Philip II (last)
Historical eraHellenistic period
312 BC 
301 BC
192–188 BC
188 BC
167–160 BC
• Seleucia taken by Parthians
141 BC
129 BC
• Disestablished
 63 BC
Area
303 BC[7]3,000,000 km2 (1,200,000 sq mi)
301 BC[7]3,900,000 km2 (1,500,000 sq mi)
240 BC[7]2,600,000 km2 (1,000,000 sq mi)
175 BC[7]800,000 km2 (310,000 sq mi)
100 BC[7]100,000 km2 (39,000 sq mi)
Population
• 301 BC[8]
30,000,000+
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Macedonian Empire
Parthian Empire
Maurya Empire
Province of Syria
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
Hasmonean kingdom
Osroene

The Seleucid Empire (/sɪˈljuːsɪd/[9]) was a Greek state[10][11] in West Asia during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 312 BC by the Macedonian general Seleucus I Nicator, following the division of the Macedonian Empire founded by Alexander the Great,[12][13][14][15] and ruled by the Seleucid dynasty until its annexation by the Roman Republic under Pompey in 63 BC.

After receiving the Mesopotamian regions of Babylonia and Assyria in 321 BC, Seleucus I began expanding his dominions to include the Near Eastern territories that encompass modern-day Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, and Lebanon, all of which had been under Macedonian control after the fall of the former Persian Achaemenid Empire. At the Seleucid Empire's height, it had consisted of territory that covered Anatolia, Persia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and what are now modern Kuwait, Afghanistan, and parts of Turkmenistan.

The Seleucid Empire was a major center of Hellenistic culture. Greek customs and language were privileged; the wide variety of local traditions had been generally tolerated, while an urban Greek elite had formed the dominant political class and was reinforced by steady immigration from Greece.[15][16][17] The empire's western territories were repeatedly contested with Ptolemaic Egypt—a rival Hellenistic state. To the east, conflict with the Indian ruler Chandragupta of the Maurya Empire in 305 BC led to the cession of vast territory west of the Indus and a political alliance.

In the early second century BC, Antiochus III the Great attempted to project Seleucid power and authority into Hellenistic Greece, but his attempts were thwarted by the Roman Republic and its Greek allies. The Seleucids were forced to pay costly war reparations and had to relinquish territorial claims west of the Taurus Mountains in southern Anatolia, marking the gradual decline of their empire. Mithridates I of Parthia conquered much of the remaining eastern lands of the Seleucid Empire in the mid-second century BC including Assyria and what had been Babylonia, while the independent Greco-Bactrian Kingdom continued to flourish in the northeast. The Seleucid kings were thereafter reduced to a rump state in Syria after a civil war, until their conquest by Tigranes the Great of Armenia in 83 BC, and ultimate overthrow by the Roman general Pompey in 63 BC.

  1. ^ Cohen, Getzel M; The Hellenistic Settlements in Syria, the Red Sea Basin, and North Africa, p. 13.
  2. ^ Lynette G. Mitchell; Every Inch a King: Comparative Studies on Kings and Kingship in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds, p. 123.
  3. ^ Grainger 2020, pp. 130, 143.
  4. ^ a b Richard N. Frye, The History of Ancient Iran, (Ballantyne Ltd, 1984), 164;"Greek was the official and dominant written language of the Seleucid empire, but Aramaic continued in use.."
  5. ^ Julye Bidmead, The Akitu Festival: Religious Continuity and Royal Legitimation in Mesopotamia, (Gorgias Press, 2004), 143.
  6. ^ Primer of Hinduism, p. 81, J. N. Farquhar, Asian Educational Services
  7. ^ a b c d e Taagepera, Rein (1979). "Size and Duration of Empires: Growth–Decline Curves, 600 B.C. to 600 A.D.". Social Science History. 3 (3/4): 121. doi:10.2307/1170959. JSTOR 1170959.
  8. ^ Grant, Michael (1990). The Hellenistic Greeks: From Alexander to Cleopatra. History of Civilisation. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 21–24, 48. ISBN 0-297-82057-5.
  9. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 1st ed. "Seleucid, n. and adj." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1911.
  10. ^ Niknami, Kamal-Aldin; Hozhabri, Ali (2020). Archaeology of Iran in the Historical Period. Springer Nature. p. viii. ISBN 978-3-030-41776-5. Most of the Asiatic occupations of Alexander, Iran as the core of them, were given to Seleucus I at first. Thus, Iran came under the ruling of the Seleucid. The Seleucid was a Greek state that commanded Western Asia between 312 and 64 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by Seleucus I.
  11. ^ Eckstein, Arthur M. (2009). Mediterranean Anarchy, Interstate War, and the Rise of Rome. University of California Press. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-520-25992-8. By 201–200 it appeared that the old structure would be replaced by a tremendous expansion in the power of two already formidable Greek states –Antigonid Macedon and the Seleucid Empire– or perhaps even that one of these two formidable powers would emerge the sole victor.
  12. ^ Jones, Kenneth Raymond (2006). Provincial reactions to Roman imperialism: the aftermath of the Jewish revolt, A.D. 66–70, Parts 66–70. University of California, Berkeley. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-542-82473-9. ... and the Greeks, or at least the Greco-Macedonian Seleucid Empire, replace the Persians as the Easterners.
  13. ^ Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies (London, England) (1993). The Journal of Hellenic studies, Volumes 113–114. Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies. p. 211. The Seleucid kingdom has traditionally been regarded as basically a Greco-Macedonian state and its rulers thought of as successors to Alexander.
  14. ^ Baskin, Judith R.; Seeskin, Kenneth (2010). The Cambridge Guide to Jewish History, Religion, and Culture. Cambridge University Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-521-68974-8. The wars between the two most prominent Greek dynasties, the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Seleucids of Syria, unalterably change the history of the land of Israel...As a result the land of Israel became part of the empire of the Syrian Greek Seleucids.
  15. ^ a b Glubb, John Bagot (1967). Syria, Lebanon, Jordan. Thames & Hudson. p. 34. OCLC 585939. In addition to the court and the army, Syrian cities were full of Greek businessmen, many of them pure Greeks from Greece. The senior posts in the civil service were also held by Greeks. Although the Ptolemies and the Seleucids were perpetual rivals, both dynasties were Greek and ruled by means of Greek officials and Greek soldiers. Both governments made great efforts to attract immigrants from Greece, thereby adding yet another racial element to the population.
  16. ^ Steven C. Hause; William S. Maltby (2004). Western civilization: a history of European society. Thomson Wadsworth. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-534-62164-3. The Greco-Macedonian Elite. The Seleucids respected the cultural and religious sensibilities of their subjects but preferred to rely on Greek or Macedonian soldiers and administrators for the day-to-day business of governing. The Greek population of the cities, reinforced until the second century BC by immigration from Greece, formed a dominant, although not especially cohesive, elite.
  17. ^ Victor, Royce M. (2010). Colonial education and class formation in early Judaism: a postcolonial reading. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-567-24719-3. Like other Hellenistic kings, the Seleucids ruled with the help of their "friends" and a Greco-Macedonian elite class separate from the native populations whom they governed.